54 Panda 4X4 With 'City Steer' Intermittent warning light for steering. Fiat main dealer wants to replace whole steering column...£500. Is this for real. Could it be faulty switch etc. Is it dangerous to drive it like this. Would appreciate some honest trustworthy opinions....thanks.
Technical Steering Warning Light
- Thread starter pgoldman
- Start date
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Technical Steering Warning Light
I assume it's not just the warning light coming and that the electric power steering actually stops working as well?
On my Mk2 Punto occasionally it would refuse to operate the power steering from cold but it would always come back after a restart. In fact, it did it as I drove it off the dealers forecourt so I can testify you can drive without it, but it does need biceps at low speed! Not ideal, but perhaps not unsafe.
May be think about a second opinion? Hopefully someone with specific Panda experience will be along soon. Welcome to the FF by the way...
chauspain
Member
The steering is assisted at all times but when the city steer button is pressed the amount of assistance given is increased.
As it's just variable assistance and not variable ratio it's uinlikely to be dangerous and may just be a case of a replacement relay or switch. From the sounds of it £500 seems a bit steep to attempt to fix an intermittent problem
As it's just variable assistance and not variable ratio it's uinlikely to be dangerous and may just be a case of a replacement relay or switch. From the sounds of it £500 seems a bit steep to attempt to fix an intermittent problem
ScoobyChris
Established member
The steering is always assisted and the City mode makes it super/comedy light
Did the dealer give you any idea what the actual fault actually was? I know on a lot of Fabia's the steering angle sensor can fail which causes similar symptoms and is fairly trivial to fix. If it's a sensor it should be highlighted by an OBD-II port scan of the car that I'm guessing the dealer did as part of the diagnosis?
Chris
Did the dealer give you any idea what the actual fault actually was? I know on a lot of Fabia's the steering angle sensor can fail which causes similar symptoms and is fairly trivial to fix. If it's a sensor it should be highlighted by an OBD-II port scan of the car that I'm guessing the dealer did as part of the diagnosis?
Chris
I've had exact same problem just took it into fiat today need complete new steering column and electric motor got quoted £900 a f****** rip off I am not prepared to pay that for a car thats done £22,000 miles, only £14,000 in the last two and a half years. The dealer was fuming himself and was not far off telling me to get onto fiat as get them to pay for it. Premature steering loss should not happen on a car with that few miles and only 4 1/2 years of age.
Emma noticeyou are in Worcestshire. It was Hylton of Worcester that diagnosed this on our car which we only bought 11 months ago form TJVickers in Telford. Our car is only 3 1/2 years old also done only 25000 miles. Thought it had years warranty but it doesn't cos there was 7 months mnfctrs warranty left, Vickers have offered to fix for £200 as gesture of goodwill. However maybe we could jointly approach Fiat?
I have notified Fiat of the problem by email I am awaiting a reply. See the post "I need some advice in an hour" to what I said. I am more than willing to give you my contact details and you to give me yours so that when you get onto Fiat you can use me in reference. Then i'll use yours when Fiat get back to me with an answer of what they can do.
